CAC pastor goes into hiding after kidnap threat
Pastor Olusegun Omoniyi of the Christ Apostolic Church, Onigbogbo, Atan Ota, is in hiding.
Omoniyi is reportedly protecting himself from the people who allegedly ordered men of the Odua Peoples Congress (OPC) to kidnap him. He told Punch why they are after his life.
“My wife had told me that her family members didn’t want her to continue living with me, but I begged her to stay,” Omoniyi said.
“However, sometime in 2015, I went for a church meeting when some of her family members came. They took away her property. Attempts at getting her family members to reconcile us were abortive as they said she had made her choice.
“However, in July 2015, I was told she was sick. On the instruction of the church leadership, I went with some other elders to give her N50,000. But her brother did not allow us to see her, saying I should go alone to see her. We refused.
“On February 6, 2016, while I was leading a church programme around 10am, four men entered the church. Two of them were OPC members and the others – Adebayo and Stephen – were my wife’s relatives. While I was on the altar, the two OPC members said they had come to take me away.
“I told them that I would not follow them since I did not know where they were taking me to. They beat me up and one of them showed me a gun and said if I didn’t cooperate, he would kill me.
“They took me to a location. In one of the rooms, I saw my wife on the bed. Her legs were swollen and there was blood all over the place. I asked her why she left the house and what I did wrong.
“While talking to her, my in-laws started beating me. I have never suffered such torture. I told my wife right there that God would judge our matter.”
Omolade died following day. But the pastor said he was able to alert the police who later rescued him.
He now alleges the same former in-laws have threatened to kidnap him again. He said they seized his landed property.
State police spokesperson Abimbola Oyeyemi said the case had not been reported at the command.
But an aide to OPC leader Gani Adams reportedly denied OPC members would kidnap anyone.
“Our boys can never be that wicked,” Segun Akanni, the aide, told DailyPost. “I have not seen the said report but I can assure you that it is not our boys,” he said.
